Poster Presentations
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Applying the chemofluidic technology, microfluidic chips can autonomously process fluids without external control elements and programmed software
Mohammed Hadi Shahadha, Scientific associate, TU Dresden
Automatic fluid processing is key to unravel the full potential of microfluidic diagnostic chips. However, most of the available commercial fluidic valves are bulky, difficult to integrate in a microfluidic chip, and need external power and programmed software to perform a fluidic protocol. This complicates the establishment of point-of-care and user-friendly microfluidic-based products as well as the miniaturization and parallelization of on-chip fluidic processes. To overcome these limitations, we employ the so-called chemofluidic technology. We integrate programmable and scalable control elements based on active materials that serve as opening and closing valves in the chip. These valves are self-controlling and do not require external power or a programmed software. The closing valves are normally open valves based on hydrogels which respond to the process medium by swelling and closing the channels after a defined time. The opening valves are normally closed valves based on water soluble polymers which dissolve in the process medium, thereby opening the channels after a defined time. By integrating our control elements in a microfluidic circuit, programmed fluidic protocols can be performed, including volume definition, mixing, transport, and dosing.
A microfluidic chip for nucleic acid amplification to detect COVID-19 and other infectious diseases is currently developed.
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